Post redirected, banks informed, car insurance changed, schools notified, meters read, cleaners booked, checkout from rental organised, and… off we go at long last. After two years of being away from St Anne’s, we’re finally moving in to the New House. What an adventure!
What could possibly go wrong? We’ve moved twice already, so we’re a dab hand at packing up with all the incidentals and hiatus in broadband (for the four teenagers this is the biggest hiccup in the process) that go along with it. What do you suppose is the worst thing that could happen at this stage? Problem with the removals? Kids getting ill? Car breaking down? I’m sure there are a few potential perils that could befall us now. But, Monday rolled around, and Andy and his removal team were top notch as usual (we’ve had the pleasure of them moving us four times now including once for the office). The kids remained amazingly buoyant and kept calm despite their five A-level exams this week and two the next between them. So even though Mum was going a little nuts, it was all looking great.
Until Tuesday.
We let the removals guys in to the pack up the rental in the morning and rushed over to site for an early meeting to find Tim’s car parked up in the lane and much activity onsite. Apparently, the main valve that regulates the water pressure from the mains leaked overnight. This valve is in the loft and is the first piece of apparatus besides pipework that the plumbing sees after it enters the building from the mains. It’s placed just upstream from the hot water tank up there above Gemma’s room. Somehow a bunch of water came out of it, and I won’t say any more because the loss assessors and legal teams are involved. But it must have been on a long time looking at all the damage.
The rest of the week has been spent getting our stuff into storage and trying to find an immediate short term rental. We’ve got some great friends who have kindly put us up for as long as it takes which is incredibly generous, and we are very grateful that everyone has a bed, cups of tea can be made, and that we can use their place as a base. They’ve even let us use a part of their garden for all my potted plants. But somehow we’ve got to get cracking back into real life next week what with school, work, and exams, and coordinating what’s in and what’s not in the storage pod. Somewhere, buried within the solid mass of boxes, we’ve got to retrieve gear for a D of E Gold expedition, school shoes, and outfits for two proms before Friday. The contracts for the legal team are also buried along with all our warm clothes as it’s just gone from sizzling heat wave to soggy cold snap. My little Toyota would be bursting to the gunnels with all this stuff, so I think we’ll have to acquire other forms of transport to schlep stuff around town. So that’s another thing to organise.
And after that it’s picking up the pieces to find our third rental during this project.
There is no time to wallow in what this all means or how much it’s going to cost, we’ve just got to get on with it.
Good feeling gone.